For a girl who grew up with no appreciation for berries whatsoever, I'm amazed by the amount of strawberries I'm consuming and absolutely loving these days. Strawberries are at their seasonal peak between mid-May and mid-June in New Jersey and I've been taking advantage of this. How many pounds do you think you've eaten in the last few weeks? I can't count...
The fresh strawberries are so good, they quickly vanish as I simply eat them. As much inspiration as I've encountered, despite all the beautiful berry-filled desserts I've admired, I can't seem to muster the motivation to make a fruit tart or even whip up a cake with them. I'm just gorging on them straight-up while my husband likes a little chocolate or Nutella with it.
I could only manage to assemble this simple strawberry dessert, and all it takes is assembly. It's a loose interpretation of a mille-feuille or Napoleon dessert. I adapted the "recipe" from Gavottes, the original maker of crispy crepe dentelle - amazing wafer cookies that I simply love to eat as is or break up to mimic feuilletine in chocolate crunch bars. Very sadly, my local World Market stores seem to have stopped carrying Gavottes biscuits so I settled for similar ones available at Whole Foods. They are good but if you can get the Gavottes brand of crepe wafers, I highly recommend it because they are even better.
The last time I made mille-feuille or Napoleon was back in May 2011 when I followed a somewhat more traditional route using puff pastry to form the crispy layers. This easy dessert takes that similar idea but instead of puff pastry, the crispy, buttery crepe wafers act as the flaky layers. To make it, simply lay down a few of these wafers (I used ones coated in dark chocolate but you can find plain or ones coated in milk chocolate), top with some lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream, strawberries, and repeat. It takes very little time to put together.
I'll be honest with you; this is a messy thing to eat! Your best bet is to take a fork/spoon and whack it to break the wafers down. It's going to disintegrate and look a mess on your plate but just scoop it up and you're rewarded with mouthfuls of strawberries and cream together with crispy caramelized shards of wafers coated with chocolate.
For the most part, I'm going to continue just snacking on these seasonal fresh strawberries while they're available but it was fun to do a little something different with my hoard!
I'll be honest with you; this is a messy thing to eat! Your best bet is to take a fork/spoon and whack it to break the wafers down. It's going to disintegrate and look a mess on your plate but just scoop it up and you're rewarded with mouthfuls of strawberries and cream together with crispy caramelized shards of wafers coated with chocolate.
